authorSTREAM is iPad Compatible: Conversation with Harman Singh

Harman Singh is the Founder and CEO of authorGEN Technologies, which owns two Internet platforms – authorSTREAM and WiZiQ. authorSTREAM.com is a PowerPoint sharing platform striving to make your presentations sharable on the Web – whether they are viewed from desktops, mobile phones or tablets like iPad. WiZiQ is an online education platform where you can teach and learn online, any subject you can think of. In this conversation, Harman discusses the iPad compatibility on authorSTREAM.

Geetesh: authorSTREAM is the first fully iPad compatible presentation sharing site online – why is this such an important issue for you? Do you think iPad has the potential of becoming a device that changes the way people access your site?

Harman: There is no denying the fact that Apple’s iPhone and iPod lead web usage from the mobile devices segment. And when it comes to iPad and such tablet devices, we believe that they are going to change the world of computing as we know it — its going to bring computers to people who have not used them before. And any content sharing platform cannot ignore this opportunity especially because unlike smaller devices, the iPad’s screen size is perfect for viewing rich media content such as presentations.

But as we know, an issue with Apple’s hand-held devices is the absence of Flash support. authorSTREAM presentations work on Flash — so we had to provide an alternative for Apple devices. We also saw this as an opportunity to not only help members access the platform on these devices but to also extend authorSTREAM’s reach to a wider audience.

Geetesh: You do mention on your blog that while iPad support is complete, it still does not provide a near PowerPoint viewing experience – some transitions, animations, and effects don’t make the translation yet – what are your plans on that front?

Harman: Yes, that is true. Currently we support only snapshots of slides in a presentation player and not fully featured animations, transitions and narrated audio experience. Simple animations and transitions will follow in the next few versions, so will rehearsed slideshows with narrations. We intend to make rich media PowerPoint presentations fully compatible with iPads moving forward.